


There was Once a Lady and a Samurai

by the17thmuse



Series: Hatake Agricultural Adventures [2]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Incest, M/M, Non-Consensual Body Modification, Rumors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-17
Updated: 2019-11-17
Packaged: 2021-02-07 16:49:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21461311
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the17thmuse/pseuds/the17thmuse
Summary: (Companion to "Let Me Tell You a Story About a Pretty Samurai" and set before "The Grave of the Stray Dog")The Many Tales of Setsugen no Shiroi-shi and Senjou no Yaken
Relationships: Original Male Character/Original Male Character
Series: Hatake Agricultural Adventures [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1487342
Kudos: 27





	There was Once a Lady and a Samurai

There are tales of a samurai with the name of a dog and his lord's wife that originated in Tetsu no Kuni, and they all went a little differently.

Each one started out the same. That there was once a nameless samurai who was called Senjou no Yaken, for he fought like a rabid dog in battle and outlived all manner of friends and foes, even his masters. 

Unlike his contemporaries, he desired neither wealth nor power nor recognition, merely the most basic of necessities like clothing and a place to stay for the night. Whether serving the richest nobles or even the poorest of farmers he gave no complaint. 

(And it was because of this that he was known to the common folk as Hatake no Yaken, a stray dog of the farmlands.) 

His prowess in success, obedience, and humility were found to be even more valuable than his reputation for survival. And so the lords from all lands clamored for his services. 

They say he eventually came under service to a lord of some great influence in the Land of Iron. And that the lord commanded Yaken to protect and watch over his wife. 

For the lady was lonely with only her husband for company, and was too shy to even mingle with servants. And the lord had declared her health fragile and forbade her access to the outside world.

(And truthfully, her countenance, carefully bred from ancestors originating from Yuki no Kuni and Kaminari no Kuni, was so lovely her husband feared she may be taken away.)

So Yaken did as he was bade, and found tales of her health and shyness to be nothing more than rumor. But her loveliness and grace truly were beyond compare, and his weary mind found a balm in her presence. And so too, did the lady find comfort in him, for she truly yearned for a friend, and especially loved listening to his tales of past journeys in lands far away.

They grew close, more than duty dictated, and truly became close friends. 

But the lady hid a great, terrible and painful shame, and what Yaken discovered, changed everything between them.

(What this secret was, no one was sure of. But what was evident was that the lady could no longer stay with her husband.)

And as to what particular series of events occurred after...well. Almost everyone seemed to have an opinion of what happened.

#

The _goze_ of Asatsusato implied that the two had become lovers. 

They said that the samurai took his sweet lady and fled with her into the night. And that the lord, furious at the discovery come morning, brought the wrath of all his warriors and mercenaries upon his traitorous servant, but could not find any trace of the two. 

It was as if they had gone and disappeared into the spirit realm to live in peace. And the lord searched and searched until he suddenly died of a wasting sickness. 

This was only one of the very few happy endings that existed for this tale.

#

In Kurihama, Yaken supposedly brought the lady to a far away village where she could spend the rest of her days basking in simple joys. And that he returned to his master with his honor and integrity intact, and met his execution with aplomb. The lord then had his corpse quartered and scattered all over the land, so that his ghost could never find rest and would wander forever. 

A variation of the tale in nearby Shimada added that the lady heard word of what happened to her protector and spent weeks retrieving every part of his body, before burying them under a tree and disappearing into unknown places. And in some other cases, that she hanged herself to join him in death.

#

Okugawa maintained that Senjou no Yaken left his lady to her freedom and took on a ward, a eunuch who will become known as Setsugen no Shiroi-shi. And that these two comrades-in-arms would go on many adventures until they finally meet their death in some nameless battle. 

In some tales, these two were lovers, while in others, they are but master and devoted apprentice.

#

(In an inn not far from Okugawa, there was once a ronin who came in with a lady and left with a man they never saw enter the establishment. The innkeeper called the guards to investigate the possible murder of a noblewoman, but they found no trace of her in the end. 

It was as if she never existed in the first place.)

#

One of the more popular tales in Shimotani told of the final battle of Hatake no Yaken and his apprentice Shiroi-shi. But in this, the lord's men eventually caught up to the two, and grievously outnumbered and worn down after killing wave after wave of mercenaries and warriors, Yaken sent his comrade away (or knocked him out and hid him). The ronin was then eventually beaten, held down and decapitated, and his head sent to the lord as proof of death.

In some versions of the same tale Shiroi-shi succeeded in avenging him, while in others he surrendered the sword in grief and spent his last days in self-exile, trying to forget his failure.

#

Each tale came with a hint of the truth. Every tale is a lie.

#

(In Nishikawa, the people still curse the madness of Yoshimuda Seido even after many years. While the succeeding Daimyo sent out the annual search party to find traces of his predecessor's missing nephew-wife, to no avail.)

#

In the outskirts of little village in Take no Kuni called Kyukei—where Setsugen no Shiroi-shi once buried his master's chopped up remains in the ground as opposed to a burial mound—an old farmer named Kenja assisted a bedraggled mother and her brood of equally tired children from their long and arduous journey.

The one-eyed woman, who had fainted upon arrival due to malnutrition and exhaustion, introduced herself as Shiroki Hatake.

**Author's Note:**

> Well. I suppose that answers a lot on the question of Shiroki's identity. Now the real questions are: who is Senjou/Hatake no Yaken?
> 
> Also, I really hate geography and pinpointing all these locations was very tiring and made me stare at the Naruto world map a lot more than I ever wanted or needed to.
> 
>   
This is going to be my last post in a while. Sadly, my updates are going to be more rare from now on due to my new hectic schedule. Ah well...
> 
> **Warnings: **rumors, an implied avunculate marriage, implied non-consensual genital mutilation, and a gruesome death
> 
> **Roster:**  
Senjou no Yaken (stray dog of the battlefield) [戦場の 野犬] - the previous moniker of Hatake no Yaken  
Hatake no Yaken (stray dog of the farmlands) [畑の 野犬] - a mysterious nameless samurai from Shiroki's past  
Setsugen no Shiroi-shi (white death of the snowfield) [雪原の白い死] - Shiroki's previous identity as Yaken's partner  
Yoshimuda Seido (reason squandered - righteous path) [由無駄 - 正道] - the husband and uncle of Shiroki and the previous Daimyo of Tetsu no Kuni  
Kenja (wise man) [賢者] - the Kyukei village elder  
Shiroki (white sake presented as an offering to the gods) [白酒] - supposedly the first Hatake, a very pretty samurai-turned-farmer with more missing teeth than scars  
  
Asatsusato (morning village) [朝つ里] - a village in Kawa no Kuni (Land of Rivers)  
Kurihama (chestnut beach) [栗浜] - a village of the coast of Ta nu Kuni (Land of Rice Paddies)  
Shimada (island ricefield) [島田] - a village not far from Kurihama  
Okugawa (back river) [奥川] - a village bordering Tsuchi no Kuni (Land of Earth) and Taki no Kuni (Land of Waterfalls)  
Shimotani (lower valley) [下谷] - a village north of Kaze no Kuni (Land of Wind)  
Nishikawa (west river) [西川] - the capital of Tetsu no Kuni (Land of Iron)  
Kyukei (rest) [休憩] - a village in Sogen no Kuni where Shiroki brought his brood of children and raised them  
Sogen no Kuni (Land of Prairies) [草原の国] - the country where Kusagakure is located


End file.
